The Inhumanity of Socialism eBook

[2] The accuracy of this reference was challenged
by a young Socialist, after the address. I have
not read Capital for many years but think I cannot
be far wrong in my statement and, in any case, the
conception as stated, whether accurately Marxian or
not, is the conception of all who give vitality to
Socialism in this country. Hence, I do not take
the time to verify my recollection. I am a busy
man and it is no light thing to tackle Capital with
intent to extract its precise meaning. Multitudes
who have tried it have failed. Perhaps I was one
of them. Of course Marx recognized the value
of Labor other than manual, but his appeal was to
manual workers and it is mainly they who have responded.

[3] Some of these counts would bear subdividing but
they would come out all right. Any syllogism
will come out all right when you assume the premises.

A Critique of Socialism

To the Ruskin Club

When your Mr. Bamford wrote me that the Ruskin Club
was out hunting trouble, and that if I would come
over here the bad men of the club would “do
me up,” I confess my first impulse was to excuse
myself from the proffered hospitality. In the
first place, as I have never posed as a social champion
I had no reputation at stake and I was horribly afraid.
Secondly, while my reading of Socialist and Anti-Socialist
literature is the reverse of extensive, I am very sure
that nothing can be said for or against Socialism
which has not already been said many times, and so
well said that a fair collection of Anti-Socialist
literature would make a punching-bag solid enough to
absorb the force of the most energetic of pugilists.
Finally, the inutility of such a sally presented itself
forcibly, since there is, so far as I know, no record
of the reformation of a Socialist after the habit is
once firmly established. But while at first these
considerations were all against my putting on my armor,
in the end the instinct of eating and fighting, which
is as forceful in the modern savage, under the veneer
of civilization, as in our unpolished progenitors,
overcame all considerations of prudence, and here
I am to do battle according to my ability. I
promise to strike no foul blows and not to dodge the
most portentous of whacks, but to ride straight at
you and hit as hard as I can.

A Critique of Socialism

While it is doubtless true that no one can live in
the world without in some degree modifying his environment,
it is also true that the influence of a single person
is seldom appreciable or his opinion upon Social questions
of sufficient importance to excite curiosity, but I
confess that when I listen to an address intended to
be thoughtful, I enjoy it more or at any rate endure
it better, if I have some knowledge of the mental
attitude of the speaker toward his general subject.
Thinking that possibly those who hear me this evening
may have the same feeling, I begin by saying that
I earnestly favor a just distribution of comfort.
I suppose that if I should analyze the mental processes
leading to that wish, I should find toward the bottom
a conviction that if each had his due I should be
better off. The objection to the Socialistic
program is that it would prevent a just distribution
of comfort.